Nearly half a million dollars was spent in the primary campaign for the Missouri House of Representatives 3rd District, and in the end it didn't change a thing.

Rep. Nate Walker (R-003) captured re-election to the Mo. House in Tuesday's primary against fellow Republican Dr. John Bailey, taking 59 percent of the total ballots cast in Adair, Mercer, Sullivan and Putnam counties.

No Democratic or independent candidates filed to challenge the primary winner in November.

Walker, who was elected to his first House term in 2010, received 3,256 votes to Bailey's 2,290, easily carrying all but Putnam County, which Bailey took by 42 votes.

"I'm grateful and very humbled by this win tonight, but I know I have a lot of responsibility and a lot of work to do," Walker said at his campaign headquarters while surrounded by supporters. "(Wednesday) I'll get up and start doing what I've been doing the last two years."

The election brought a close to a long and expensive campaign, in which the Missouri Club for Growth, backed by St. Louis millionaire Rex Sinquefield, spent more than $250,000 in an effort to oust Walker, whose vote helped sustain Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon's veto on the controversial House Bill 253 tax reform measure in 2013.

The Sinquefield-backed political action committee also endorsed GOP primary challengers against three other Republicans who voted against the veto override. In each case, the incumbent candidate won Tuesday.

"I'd say, 'Nice try, good battle,'" Walker said. "I don't harbor a bunch of bad feelings about anybody. Everybody has their role in life. I use this theme, 'Courage in the arena.' I live it. I've been in lots of hard fights before. This was a pretty tough battle. I wish we all can work together and do things that are good for the whole state.

"We worked hard and tonight we were successful and I think the good thing for our district now is to forget about this campaign and move forward."

Kriegshauser, a senior political science major at Truman State, said despite being outspent the Walker campaign had more effective messages.

"To a point it was a lot (of money spent against Walker), but we held off and spent our money wisely enough that I don't think we were ever scared," he said. "Some of the commercials and stuff they ran were pretty ineffective."

Kriegshauser also credited letters to constituents penned by Don Summers of Putnam County and Gary Porter of Mercer County. The letters told personal stories of Walker and what he represented.

"That helped a lot," Kriegshauser said.

Walker said he spoke to Bailey earlier Tuesday night and called him "gracious" in defeat.

"We talked about the campaign a bit and we both agreed we'll try to work together to make sure good things happen to north Missouri and the 3rd District," Walker said.

Bailey said he felt his team ran a strong campaign.

"I'm not sure of anything else we could've done," he said. "I think we had good supporters. It just came down that way."

Bailey, who said he spent Tuesday performing a hip surgery and making phone calls, said it was time to support Walker and provide good ideas to help the community. He was uncertain if he would seek political office in the future.

Walker said he spent Tuesday making multiple visits around the district and felt "at peace" with "grace in my heart."

"I knew regardless of what happened I was going to be the same person the next day, I just might be in a different role," he said.

Part of that feeling came from his sons, Madison and Sam, who earlier in the campaign told Walker regardless of the outcome, "you're still our dad the next day and we love you."

Walker said he'll turn attention immediately to the upcoming veto session in September, with numerous tax reform measures up for debate.

As for his next term, he said he'd focus on getting full funding for the public education foundation formula and bringing jobs to the state.

"The real bottom line, it's still jobs, and we've got to be more competitive and keep working towards making the economy better," Walker said.

Walker had 1,639 votes in Adair County to Bailey's 1,109. In Mercer County, Walker won 536-318. In Sullivan County, Walker won 536-318.